告訴 vs 說
English translation: tell vs say
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| 12:25 Aug 2, 2006 |
| Chinese to English translations [Non-PRO] Social Sciences - Education / Pedagogy / Grammatische Analyse (Grammatical Analysis) | |||||||
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|  Selected response from: anastasia t (X) Local time: 21:59 | ||||||
Grading comment
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| Summary of answers provided | ||||
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| 5 +1 | tell vs say |
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| 4 +1 | Been told vs say/said |
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| 3 | inform + indir. obj. (+ dir. obj.); say (+ dir. obj.) |
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Answers
10 hrs confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1Been told vs say/said Explanation: 告诉 = been told 说 = say to / said to In your example 说 can replace 告诉，just as "Bob told me.." and "Bob said to me..." would be the same. |
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Notes to answerer
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1 day 18 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1tell vs say Explanation: Are they interchangeable here? What change in meaning would occur, if 告訴 were replaced with 說. My take: tell: to specific persons say: to a general audience |
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Grading comment
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1 day 22 hrs confidence:
inform + indir. obj. (+ dir. obj.); say (+ dir. obj.) Explanation: I think Anastasia is right. Here is my clarification, as a non-native speaker. (Please give any points to her; I wanted to put this in an agree bubble but it wouldn't fit.) So far as I know, 告訴 (tell, inform) requires an indirect object, and 說 (say) does not. Here, the Chinese terms function just like their English equivalents. If you were to parse the sentence, the difference between the two structures would be more appparent. Let me do this for you by adding commas. 1. 醫生告訴我，要多吃些青菜，少吃些肉，身體就會好些。 2. 醫生說，我要多吃些青菜，少吃些肉，身體就會好些。 In each case, what occurs immediately after the first comma is the object of the verb in question. In the first construction, 我 is the indirect object of 告訴, and 要... is the direct object. In the second construction, there is no indirect object, and 我要... is the direct object. This difference is reflected in the following English translations. Notice that only the first has an indirect object. Notice also that English requires that the subject occur in the direct object where Chinese does not in sentence 1. 1'. The doctor informed me that my health would improve were I to eat more vegetables and meat. 2'. The doctor said that my health would improve were I to each more vegetables and meat. -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day22 hrs (2006-08-04 11:12:53 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- Just to further complicate things, note that you can use a preopositional object with "say" and 說, as in: The doctor said to me that ... 醫生向我說... |
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